This invention relates to containers especially suited for protecting hot food products such as freshly baked pizza pies. More specifically, the invention is concerned with such containers featuring one or more expedients for preserving the integrity and quality of a pizza pie. In one embodiment, a container is provided with a protective and insulative laminate covering substantially all of the interior surface of the bottom of the container but not covering substantially all of the interior surface of the top of the container. In another embodiment, a container is provided having interior and exterior side walls spaced apart from one another and extending around at least a portion of the periphery of the container and vents for directing air heated by the hot pizza pie between at least a portion of the interior and exterior side walls for heat transfer with the former. A self erecting embodiment of the double wall container is disclosed. The vented double wall construction may advantageously be combined with the provision of a protective laminate on the bottom of the container to provide controlled thermal insulation and prevent migration between the pizza pie and the container.
There are a number of prior art containers designed especially for pizza pies. Conventional chipboard boxes are perhaps the least effective, in that they are flimsy before a pizza pie is placed inside. When a hot pie is placed in a chipboard container, the heat and moisture quickly warp and weaken the container making it wholly inappropriate for its purpose. Several conventional styles of double wall corrugated pizza boxes are in use today. These containers stand up better to heat and moisture than the chipboard containers, but they offer little or no advantage in terms of ease of assembly. Both types of prior art containers impart, to some degree, a cardboard taste to pizza.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,512,697 discloses an octagonal container in which diagonal corner elements reinforce the top and bottom. U.S. Pat. No. 4,765,534 discloses several embodiments of an octagonal pizza container with diagonal corner forming elements. Each one of the elements is connected to the bottom of the container and one of two adjacent side walls, but is disconnected from the other adjacent side wall.
There remains a need for a pizza container which is easy to assemble around a pizza while providing new levels of protection for the quality and integrity of the pizza contained therein.